In the history of the Islamic Republic, no incumbent has ever lost in a presidential election. The 2009 election may make history with over 46.2 million eligible voters and record high voter turnout anticipated.
The polling stations will be open Friday, June 12, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli announced, however, that if the polling stations are busy, the hours allocated to vote could be extended. There are 45,713 voting centers, including 3,200 in Tehran and vicinity alone. There are an additional 162 polling stations for Iranians living outside the country, including 32 in the United States.
Every polling station will have at least six people administering the election including a chief, a deputy, three secretaries and a member assigned by the governor. These administrators will ensure voters are eligible to vote and that election procedures are followed. To cast a ballot, voters must be over 18 years of age, be mentally sane and provide national identification cards that certify the voter is an Iranian citizen. Once the voter’s ballot is cast and sealed, the election administration stamps the voter’s identity card to eliminate the possibility of voting twice.
The elections will be monitored by the Central Supervisory Committee, established by the Guardian Council and made up of two members of the Guardian Council and five individuals chosen by consensus by the council. They will monitor their local supervisory boards appointed at the local district level. The Guardian Council, in addition to monitoring the election, reviews candidate nominations and approves the final slate of candidates.
The candidates can personally or collectively introduce supervising representative(s) at the polling stations. Candidate representatives can be present at all polling stations for the balloting, counting and transfer process. Those monitors can report any violations to the Supervisory Committee in writing.
The Judiciary also gave Iran's General Inspection Organization, a government oversight body, the authorization to observe the election, despite opposition by incumbent Ahmadinejad.
Once a polling station is closed, the counting process begins. Polling station officials first count the ballot stubs, followed by the ballots. Ballots will be considered null and void with the verification of the local district Supervisory Board if the ballot is illegible, contains names other than the approved candidates, lacks election seals or is a nonstandard ballot. If the number of stubs and ballots are equal, then the actual vote count begins. If there are more votes than ballots, then the difference is randomly selected from the ballot box and the votes cancelled, then the ballots are counted. In cases where there are more stubs than ballots, the discrepancy is reported and the votes are counted.
Once the votes are counted and results tallied, the official results are certified, and all ballots are returned to the ballot box, which is then sealed and officially transferred to the Executive Committee. Results will be announced within 24 hours.
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Published on June 11, 2009
